Clean Virginia: A WMRA Series

During the month of June, this WMRA series will explore the state of Virginia's unique environment, specifically its water, air and soil. How does agriculture affect our drinkable water, and the health of the Chesapeake Bay watershed? How well are we doing cleaning up industrial pollutants such as mercury? Are decades-old problems, such as acid rain and runoff from coal-fueled power plants, getting solved? How clean is the air we breathe?

In the last segment of our series called "Clean Virginia," WMRA’s Kara Lofton looked at the impact the Clean Air Act has had on Virginia’s waterways. This week, she takes a second look at the law and discusses the impact the act has had on the air itself.

In 1979, researchers at the University of Virginia launched the Shenandoah Watershed Study. Among other things, the study tracked the impact of the Clean Air Act on watersheds -- and wildlife such as trout -- across much of western and central Virginia. WMRA’s Kara Lofton reports.

A fish consumption advisory has been in effect for more than three decades on the South River and the South Fork of the Shenandoah River from Waynesboro to Front Royal. In the next installment of WMRA’s series called “Clean Virginia,” Kara Lofton takes a look at why the advisory is still in place and what is being done to remedy the long-standing contamination.

Honeybees are a vital component of the production of many crops, ranging from okra, to kiwis, to cotton. But across America the bees are disappearing in a phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder. As part of our series on Virginia’s environment, WMRA’s Kara Lofton takes a look at the factors affecting bee health, how bees are doing in Virginia and what’s being done to save them.

With rare exceptions, we are all dependent on power plants to generate electricity for all facets of American life -- plants owned and operated by large companies such as Duke Energy Corporation and Dominion Virginia Power. But what effect does that dependency have on the world around us? And what is being done to prevent contamination of the resources we need to survive? In Part 3 of our series "Clean Virginia," WMRA’s Kara Lofton reports.

Agriculture is one of the leading causes of pollution in Virginia’s waterways. WMRA’s Kara Lofton has the first in this occasional series on “Clean Virginia,” which will focus on pollution in our water, air and soil, and efforts over decades to clean it up.

[Sound of walking through grass]

On Bobby Whitescarver’s farm in Swoope, cattle graze contentedly on lush pastures beside lazy streams. The whole atmosphere is almost poetic. But it didn’t used to be that way.